Anything For You
by Pilya
Summary: They were childhood friends and she has loved him all her life... Does he love her too? And if he does, is it the kind of love she wants?


_Okay – I saw this before years and years ago... I don't remember the actual storyline but I remember the ending because it disturbed me so much.. Here's my version of that tragic tale..._

**ANYTHING FOR YOU**

They grew up together. Their first meeting, when he was just a toddler and she, an infant sleeping in her cradle, was something that their mothers would recap again and again in succeeding years.

He had been an unusual child. He didn't care to play with other kids his age. Instead, he preferred to do his own thing – practicing the violin, which he had just started to learn how to play, looking at picture books, sleeping, or just plain daydreaming... He enjoyed no other child's company except his own.

His parents thought it was something he would simply grow out of – he was, after all, an only child, and he had no one to play with at home. A couple of years passed, and though he was exposed to other children, he still preferred to be by himself. His parents grew increasingly concerned, and though they had been trying to conceive another child for a few years now, they hadn't been blessed with it.

One day, his mother brought him over to visit her best friend who lived next door. She had just given birth to a baby girl. By this time, his parents had accepted his oddity and simply left him to his own devices. He was, after all, brilliant in many other respects. The two women were engrossed in their conversation - sharing labor stories and talking about babies, totally ignoring the little boy who had started walking slowly towards the crib to peep through the bars at the sleeping baby on it.

Who knew what went on in his head? But after a moment, the women remembered his presence and started looking for him. To their surprise, they found him in the most unlikely place. Until now, they couldn't figure out how he managed that feat.

He was in the crib, hugging the baby girl while they both slept peacefully on – unaware of the reaction of the adults around them.

Years passed, and they grew. He, into a handsome young man with marble green eyes and auburn hair. She, into a quietly pretty young lady with straight brown hair and big brown eyes. He found a new set of friends – three other boys, and they called themselves, the F4.

The boy's father struck gold when he invented a long lasting battery for electronics that big companies were clamoring for. He patented his invention and they became rich. Consequently, the boy's family had to move out of their old middle class neighborhood, into one which fit their new status better.

On the other hand, the girl and her family were not so fortunate. With her father being somewhat of a wastrel, the girl had to learn to rely on her own abilities to save her family from the streets countless of times.

Through it all, they never lost touch. He fed her strength with his quiet and unwavering support. While she, with her animation and zest for life, fed his soul and enabled him to come out onto the world and care about people.

She had always loved him. Indeed, she could not recall any time when she had not. He had always been a major factor in her life and years before, she had even dreamed about getting married and having babies with him. When she wakes, he is the first person she thinks about; at night, his is the last face she sees in her head. She guesses that he knows how she feels – after all, everyone tells her how easy she is to read... Yet in all the years they've spent together, he has never acknowledged it. Never said anything. Not in rejection, not in acceptance. Nothing.

So she thinks he just doesn't feel the same.

She still stays with him. To tease, to cajole – alternating roles between being his friend, his sister, his lover from afar. She tries to convince herself to be satisfied with friendship but of course, her heart beats for otherwise. Still, she doesn't say anything – fear of rejection made her mute. He may think of himself as her brother, and she could never bear to hear that from his own lips.

They continue to bridge the gap between them, despite their new lives and the new roles they had to play. She didn't belong in his new world of glitzy jewelry and glamorous women, but he never wanted her to try anyway. In his own way he loved her. Other than his mother, she is probably the only girl he loves.

One day, tragedy struck. She had been walking home from one of her many jobs when a truck being driven by a drunk driver careened from the corner and skidded into the pavement where she was standing. Luckily she was not hit by the body of the vehicle, but the shards of glass and metal that the truck was transporting flew into the air and some of them hit her in the face and eyes.

And so she became blind.

For the first time, she retreated into herself. Nothing could save her from the blackness that surrounded her now. There was no hope except a transplant, and sadly, it would take years to find a donor as there are other cases more important and more urgent than hers. Only the boy's presence and constant encouragement pierced the shell she had now erected between her and the world around her.

She became dependent on him. More and more, she leaned on him for support – only able to make her way into this world with his help.

The boy became saddened by the circumstances of his childhood friend. It was not so much the blindness that bothered him but her dependence. She had lost all faith in herself, seeming overwhelmed by the experience of being blind.

A few months passed and she was still in the same place she'd been when they diagnosed her blindness. She had refused therapy – refused any offer to learn her way around herself. She had him, she didn't need anything or anyone else.

And so one day, the boy decided to leave. He realized that far from helping her and supporting her with his presence, he was crippling her. With him there, she would continue to lean on her love for him, never fighting for her love for herself.

He left.

A couple of years passed, and just as the boy predicted, the girl had managed to rediscover her strength and ability to endure. She was as strong and tough as she had ever been – maybe strong_er_ and tough_er_ because of his absence.

Far from hating him for leaving her, her love for him grew. She understood his reasons exactly, and knew that it was his brand of love that propelled him to leave her side.

The knowledge that his concern and care for her enabled him to do this, strengthened her resolve to rediscover who she was and who else she might be. She would not waste this gift.

She became a great artist. Her art had given her the avenue to express everything that was raging inside her. It gave her insurmountable happiness and she learned to love again. Ironically, it was with one of the boy's old friends. Though she loved him with a passion she had thought herself incapable since her accident, she could not forget her childhood friend, her first love and soulmate, the sweetheart that could never be hers.

Suddenly though they received news of a possible eye donor. At first the girl could not bring herself to hope, for it had been a long time since the accident that blinded her. But the day arrived for her operation and it was deemed a success.

The day they took off the bandages from her eyes was one of the best days of her new life. She will never forget seeing the blue-ness of the sky, the dust mites that danced with the rays of the sun and the rainbow caught by one of the sparkling dews in a pale green leaf. She wanted to meet her donor or the family and thank them for this gift. But the donation was private and she was not allowed contact with them. Writing a letter of thanks seemed a passable compromise and so she satisfied herself with doing so.

The girl and her new love decided to get married. But on the eve of her wedding, she found herself walking in a park alone, reflecting on the events in her life that had led her to this moment. She remembered her old friend and hoped that wherever he was, he was well. She wished him happiness and hoped that one day he would be able to find the kind of love he had never allowed her to show for him.

That late night at night, there were only a handful of people in the park, one of them was a guy who was sitting on a bench with his legs and arms wide apart right in front of her path. He was looking up at the sky, and every so often she'd see his chest heaving. Whatever thoughts he had must be lonely ones. Her heart sympathized and she walked closer to him thinking that she could maybe offer him some words of hope.

When she reached his vicinity though, she changed her mind. Something in his stance rejected any approach. She had just taken a couple of steps away from him when something about him stopped her in her tracks and made her look back.

It was her first love.

"Hanazawa Rui?" the girl whispered softly, afraid that any loud noise may destroy this dream she thought she was having.

That dear face of her childhood friend turned to look at her. It WAS him!

And Makino Tsukushi found the answer to her question of long ago. He DID love her.

For he was blind.

*****

_Hope you liked the story... This, in a way, is my attempt to create an RxT fanfic... :) Please R & R! Thank you!_


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